Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Still in one piece

Well, I'm still one person, and not two yet. :) For some reason, I really think that Bun Rabbit is not going to arrive early, but there's only a couple of days left for me to be proven wrong!
That way my sister Peta will still get to see me pregnant (she arrives home on Friday after being in England and then backpacking in Europe and South America for the past couple of months), and we'll get to go to my step-brother's wedding on Saturday without causing any hassles. I'm still not at the point of "get this baby out of me now", which is kind of surprising. The whole pregnant thing has been going so well for me, I'm not too bothered by it. Might be different if I couldn't drive or if the carpal tunnel style symptoms were more painful. Although I'm pretty much living in about three outfits, so that's slightly tiresome (but very easy to make a choice in the morning!!).
Bun Rabbit's been kicking and moving a fair bit - I thought movement was meant to slow down at this late stage?? I've been suggesting to Bun Rabbit that if it's getting a bit cramped in there, then BR is the only person who can do something about it ...
We've been booked in for an induction on 11 October, in case Bun Rabbit isn't here by then. I'm hoping BR doesn't cook for that long!! We couldn't get an earlier appointment for an induction at the hospital, so hopefully things will happen by themselves before then.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Working Bee with the Grandies

This afternoon, Annma and Grandad Richie and Gramps came over to help move books and bookshelves. Moving the books and shelves was a simple enough job with all the helping hands involved, so we ended up clearing the whole room of all my unsorted important stuff and cleaning it out. Vaccuumed it. Washed the walls. Washed the floor. Washed the cornicing. Washed the window and fly screens. Aunty Janet and Annma did a great job, I just had to help a little (mainly with the cornicing) and a variety of Enjo fibres were put to very good use! Bun Rabbit's room has started out clean without using heaps of chemicals. :)
Bun Rabbit's room now has the change table and cot in it, and my old set of drawers. Still deciding if the drawers will stay there, and some of my old clothes need to be removed from the cupboard, but otherwise, the room is pretty much done! It was an AWESOME job, and I couldn't believe how much we got done in three hours ... YAY!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

From the doctor

We had our weekly visit with the OB on Tuesday. As soon as we walked in, she told me that I wasn't allowed to go into labour today. I think she had at least one patient in labour, and perhaps a caesarean already lined up for the afternoon ... luckily, there were (and still are) no signs of Bun Rabbit arriving early. Bun Rabbit's head is down, but not engaged yet. Eva thinks Bun Rabbit will be about 8lbs, at full term. She's finding it a bit hard to tell, as Bun Rabbit has so much room to stretch out in, unlike I guess most babies on smaller women.
My itchy skin was just itchy skin, so no worries about choleostasis (liver or kidney disfunction - if I had this, I'd be induced next week .. but I don't have it!). Apart from that, our appointments are pretty boring. JR and I can't even think of questions to ask our OB.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

3 weeks and counting

We've just returned from a lovely weekend at Rainbow Beach, with Great-Gran-Caroline. We went up on Thursday night, and have a great couple of days there. It's the first time we've been able to get up to Rainbow all pregnancy, so very exciting to finally be there. Probably one of my most sober trips up there in the past 5 or so years ... ;)
We had a very relaxing time, reading, a little walk on the beach, chatting to Caroline, and eating (of course) ... slightly hindered by my attempts to spend the last 4 weeks of the pregnancy on a gluten free diet (more about that in another post another day), but lots of fun. Caroline's friend Ellie B will be happy to know that I didn't go into labour while we were there ... she was very concerned about Bun Rabbit arriving early, and hoped Caroline remembered her midwifery stint during her nursing career! Caroline's a member of the local ambulance committee, so between her former nursing career and 'connections' to the ambulance, I wasn't too worried. I'll probably be wishing in a few weeks time that Bun Rabbit will arrive as quickly as people are worried about!
(Really KT posting this, not JR)

Monday, September 04, 2006

Latest news

Firstly, thanks to Char who said we should put a blog together for Bun Rabbit, particularly for when there are photos of BR to share with you all .. :) and then she found out that the bunrabbit.blogspot.com alias was available on Blogger. Too cool dude. It's also kinda funny that John put this together on the same day our friend, Brett, was in the local newspaper (Courier Mail), making comments about his company's corporate blog public later this month (OK, shameless plug - www.saucesoft.com).

I finished work last Friday, and have about 10 months off - I'm planning on going back in June 2007. To our American friends, I'm sure this seems like a really long amount of maternity leave! Depending on how long you've been with your employer, most Australian employees have a basic entitlement of up to 52 weeks leave during your preganancy and the birth of your child (and same entitlements if you adopt). Most companies don't seem to pay you for any of this time, unless you work in the Government sector, and one of my friends who worked for a bank received some kind of part pay for some period of time. I'm taking a few weeks of annual leave which I had accrued, but that's about it for me.
I had a nice morning tea with a few people at work on Friday, and when I finally made it out of the office, went to the Belgian Beer Cafe as it was social club drinks. After having a juice (really, alcohol-free Cosmopolitans are just juice and almost as good as the real thing!) and a chat with a few people, I went home, looking forward to a pretty relaxing weekend, before starting on my list of jobs this week.

I've been feeling very healthy and on the whole, fine. I'm getting a bit of fluid retention, so my normally knobbly and veiny feet occasionally look rather smooth and strange. My skin's also getting a bit itchy, but a midwife friend (and the 15 books I consulted) assures me it's just the skin stretching. I'm not too sure why the skin on my forearms is stretching, but we see the OB tomorrow, so we'll make sure that it's nothing serious. We've been very blessed that everything so far has been so straightforward, it'd be nice to continue with that theme at this stage!!

Bun Rabbit is moving lots. Daddy's hands still have the most calming influence of all. All motion stops when I try to share these wonderous sensations with John. Most of the movement is very much in the rolling/moving vein, and no so much in the kicking/punching vein. I think (like I know what I'm talking about!!).

I've compiled a list of jobs to get done before Bun Rabbit arrives, starting with getting the nursery organised. It's been my study for the past 6 years, and still looks like it for now. The main thing left to do in the room is remove the wall of (free-standing) bookshelves, and books, and put them all in another room. This will have to be a bit of a slow job for me over the next few days/week, as I probably shouldn't be lugging books downstairs (but I'm still weight training at the gym twice a week). Mum has made curtains for the room - very bright colours, with animals and ABCs on them. She just finished the curtains yesterday, and I can't wait to see how they'll look in the room. :)

I'll keep emailing updates to everyone for now, but when Bun Rabbit arrives, we'll be sharing photos with you all through this site.

Four Weeks and Counting

Kirsty and I thought it was time that we started a blog for our little "Bun Rabbit", who's due date is September 30.

For those not in the know, it has become something of a tradition to provide children with a nickname while they are in the womb. It has been an absolute scream coming up with some of the names. Bun Rabbit has become the nickname for our little one. This is a compromise between Kirsty and I. As to why, I am staying silent.